Here we post the monthly Snapshotz Online newsletter.
Check back every month for news and views from the Snapshotz community.
If you want to have the monthly Download sent to your email address please click here
February Snapshotz
The
Download
The Snapshotz Online Download February 2012
With much more of 2012 to go, the February issue of ‘Download’ is packed with valuable information enable you to drive the year forward!
Megatrends for 2012: Contributions from Rod Jones an industry veteran of 35 years and our partner in South Africa
A white paper published by the Contact Center Pipeline on ‘Why contact center audits are a must’ or ‘why you cannot manage what you do not know about’
Snapshotz Online Statistics – experiences drawn from the ever growing base of over 600 Snapshotz users worldwide
Event information
________________________________________
Snapshotz Online Research
One of the great benefits of the Snapshotz Online call center audit tool is the insight that can be gained into the operation of not only your center, but also to the broader community that has deployed Snapshotz.
When we examine data from our global database we can see a number of interesting points related to their operations:
‘28% of centers complete legacy work and/or serve the needs of third parties
that are not core to the operation and function of the call center and come at a cost to the effectiveness of the center. ‘
These activities can include: Supporting reception and the front counter, providing
staff for warehouse support, completing data entry etc.
‘62% of call center characterize their operating philosophy as “meeting operating, production and quality targets and managing costs”- Only 12% of centers “try to understand our strengths and weaknesses so that we can support the organizational goals”’
‘82% of call center leaders say that alignment to corporate goals and objectives in very important for the call center.
Yet only 20% of centers said that their alignment was Good or Excellent. 77% stated that they just ‘Meet Basic Criteria’.
Where does your centre stand? You can find out for yourself using the Snapshotz Online tool very quickly and for an amazingly low cost. Do you want to know more? Click here
________________________________________
WHITE PAPER: The Purpose and Goals of a Contact Center Audit – Colin Taylor
In this very easy to read and well laid out article from Colin Taylor, you will learn what a contact center audit is about, why it is required for a center and what are the factors today driving the need for center audits and old approaches versus a cloud based approaches.
A must read for any customer service professional: Click to Read
________________________________________
Contact Centre Mega-Trends for 2012 – Rod Jones
What are the trends in our environment affecting us today? Have a look at what Rod has picked out ranging from social media, capturing the voice of the customer, the remote workforce, outsourced quality assurance and work force management.
Build these into your plans for the year: Click to Read
________________________________________
Events … Snapshotz Online – CCiNZ Monthly Bites for 2012 gets off to a flying start
The first Snapshotz Online CCiNZ Contact Centre Institute of New Zealand (CCiNZ) for 2012 kicked off with a roaring start with a site visit to the ANZ Bank contact center in Penrose, Auckland.
Sadly we had to turn quite a few away as the event got booked up pretty fast. It was a great learning and networking opportunity to be had by all. Some of the photos from the event are available here: Photos‘
In March we will have Bridgette Dalzell, Telecom New Zealand and Carla McKenzie, Southern Cross Health Society as speakers: Expect to carry a bagful of ideas home! See event details
Team Leader Summit: Auckland: March 2012
Rapid Results and CRM Consulting are proud to bring you the first dedicated Team Leader Summit in 2012. You will hear tricks and techniques from industry winners, enjoy site visits for new ideas and layouts, and have plenty of networking for sharing ideas and lots more…
Download a brochure for details and pricing here >>>
________________________________________
Missed last months most read articles – Check them out here
“Four “Accepted” Myths of Leadership” – Darlene Richard
Leadership: Reflection and Resolution – Darlene Richard
Watch this 10 minute video that Darlene recommends in her article guaranteed to change your outlook!
What’s so familiar with the situation? A few Suggestions to overcome some of the stumbling blocks in 2012 – Deepak Selvaratnam: Published in the Call Center Times, Dec 2011
Snapshotz approach delivers savings. Read how using the simple but structured Snapshotz approach, this team was able to drive a seamless customer experience, reduce costs to serve, gain greater agent engagement and increased interdepartmental cooperation. Read how the team achieved savings…
________________________________________
Please let us know if you wish to have this newsletter sent to another email address or be sent to someone else whom you think will benefit from this mail.
Send to another email address or Please forward
________________________________________
Wishes again for a fruitful March 2012.
All the best from the Team @
WWW.CustomerServicesAudit.com
Developed in NZ but gaining ground around the world, Snapshotz is the cheapest tool to keep track of the entirety of the customer experience. Check out the website http://customerservicesaudit.com/ See sample reports generated as well as other links such as customers experiences Customer Experiences
Snapshotz Online has multiple applications – audit, planning, training, comparison of teams and performance, review and reporting.
If you wish to find out more contact us or our certified partners and we will be happy to discuss any questions you may have. Contact information: Email: Info@customerservicesaudit.com
Customer Services Audit Ltd, TeleConsultants House, 31 MacKelvie Street, Grey Lynn,
Auckland1144, New Zealand. Phone: 0064 9 376 2806 .
To unsubscribe from future mailings please respond to this mail with “Unsubscribe” in the subject header
A Snapshotz of December 2011
In spite of the trying economic conditions globally we had had a 250% growth in customers employing Snapshotz over 2011 and have forecast to double growth in 2012. Over two thirds of Snapshotz users have a subscription purchase.
Snapshotz today can still claim to be the only holistic web based (SaaS) tool available to contact centres for regular assessment and continuous improvement programs. Covering over 700 variables and continually being updated with approaches and technology in the customer service world.
In this festive issue, we tackle 2 important topics that perennially accost us and will serve us well as we dwell on the year ahead. Darlene Richard has us dwelling upon leadership: reflection and resolution and includes an amazing thought proving clip that is guaranteed to change your views on change. Colin Taylor tackles a subject that we cannot seem to keep the lid on over the last 20 years! staff and agent retention. Two must reads as you emerge into the New Year!
Get well soon Don, Don Hales the doyen of customer Service in the UK and a Snapshotz contributor took ill recently, we wish him speedy recovery and a restful season ahead.
A note to those of you who wish to have Snapshotz Download delivered to another email address other than the one you currently receive this monthly ‘download’ please click here to include another address
Several international publications on carry articles from the Snapshotz monthly download over 5 last month, see link to the Call Center Times article.
________________________________________
Is It Time for your Call Center Check Up? Colin Taylor
Clients frequently ask me what is the single most important activity they should undertake to ensure that their center is operating and performing at an optimal level. Like all of us they are looking for the magical, simple solution to their issues and challenges; just one thing; the magic pill, silver bullet, panacea that makes their jobs as center managers easier and more productive. Unfortunately there is no ‘Silver Bullet’.
What I tell these call center operators is that to be effective they need to know their center…at this point I get a look of indignation…”of course I know my center., what are your suggesting?”. They are thinking and assuming that this consultant has finally lost touch with reality. But what I mean is that to be effective you must really, really know and understand your operation.
There is a Zen dialogue where a student asks the teacher what the secret to meditation is. The teacher tells the student the secret is Attention, “what is attention”, the student asks and the answer from the teacher is “Attention means Attention”, We must pay attention to each and every activity in the center, every day.
While this sounds simple or at least simplistic, this can be a huge challenge. Most managers manage from point to point in a sequential process, “OK, today I will focus on the new cross selling initiative and tomorrow on agent occupancy and then Thursday on the forecast revision that we need to do based upon the new marketing materials we are using next quarter. This sound perfectly reasonable and it is, but it reflects our linear and sequential management approach…first this, then that and later the next thing. This approach is great for knocking tasks off a “To Do’ list, but by its’ very nature it ignores all of the other aspects and activities that are not on the “To Do List”.
Fire Fighting or Fire Prevention?
We know that there are literally thousands of activities that take place in a call center. Each call may involve tens or hundreds of discrete activities, knowledge points, applications, processes, clicks and keystrokes. It is these activities that are the ‘meat and potatoes’ of a call center operation. It is also these activities that receive very little attention until something goes wrong.
Once there is a problem then the specific activity in question is a candidate for inclusion on the “To Do List”. For many organizations the “To Do List”, devolves into little more than ‘firefighting; dealing with crises rather than proactively improving the call centers’ operation, fire prevention. But given the vast scope of potential customer interaction activities in the call center what other options are there for staying on top of the ‘thousands of moving pieces’ that are occurring in real time every minute of every day?
How do we effectively manage these interconnected processes and systems; the ‘thousands of moving parts’ that make up every call center? Contact us to find out more
________________________________________
Closing the revolving door Part 1 and 2 – Colin Taylor (Taylor Reach Group)
Staff and agent retention is an issue that has plagued centres for over 20 years and still does. Learn why this is still a current issue and how to start closing that revolving door! Read Colin’s article
Leadership: Reflection and Resolution – Darlene Richard
Find out what the key distinguishing qualities of a leader are and what inspirational leaders focus upon as a legacy.Read Darlene’s article.
Watch this 10 minute video that Darlene recommends in her article guaranteed to change your outlook!
Wish to provide feedback or comment? We welcome comments on Darlene’s article and all other information presented in the Download. Place feedback…
May this holiday season be blessed and restful.
Wishes for a family filled Christmas and to a great 2011.
All the best from the Team @
WWW.CustomerServicesAudit.com
Other news you may have missed…
Snapshotz approach delivers savings. read how using the simple but structured Snapshotz approach, this team was able to drive a seamless customer experience, reduce costs to serve, gain greater agent engagement and increased interdepartmental cooperation. Read how the team achieved savings…
2011 TRENDS to watch for in customer Service and IT Support
Times they are a changing – China comes calling. Read more in our news and events section.
New Partners join the Snapshotz Online brigade Feb 2011 Snapshotz Download Newsletter.
Developed in NZ but gaining ground around the world, Snapshotz is the cheapest tool to keep track of the entirety of the customer experience. Check out the website http://customerservicesaudit.com/ See sample reports generated as well as other links such as customers experiences Customer Experiences
Snapshotz Online has multiple applications – audit, planning, training, comparison of teams and performance, review and reporting.
If you wish to find out more contact us or our certified partners and we will be happy to discuss any questions you may have. Contact information: Email: Info@customerservicesaudit.com
Customer Services Audit Ltd, TeleConsultants House, 31 MacKelvie Street, Grey Lynn,
Auckland1144, New Zealand. Phone: 0064 9 376 2806 .
To unsubscribe from future mailings please respond to this mail with “Unsubscribe” in the subject header
________________________________________
The
Download 
A Snapshotz of November:
Pressure priorities and leadership: Darlene Richard, Distinguishing between listening for quality and its use as a performance management measure: Colin Taylor, Christmas, recession and customer service in the UK: Don Hales and some local news.
The last issue of the download had an awesome number of forwards. We could not believe it ourselves! Someone excitedly forwarded the Download to their operational head and COO. The operational head promptly requested to be unsubscribed and the COO said please ensure this gets to my team. Tricky situation to inform the Director of contact centres’ that a. we did not forward the download and b. he may need to start receiving and reading the download anyway!
Snapshotz opens a new channel in North America
Contact Center Pipeline the long standing and illustrious monthly journal for contact center executives began offering Snapshotz to its readers. Snapshotz is the only holistic contact center assessment tool available worldwide as a web based tool. This has prompted the CCP to include the Snapshotz offering in offering in a special tab on its website . An interview with the editor will follow in our next Download.
A note to those of you who wish to have Snapshotz Download delivered to another email address other than the one you currently receive this monthly ‘download’ please click here to include another address
What’s so familiar? Suggestions to overcome some of the stumbling blocks in 2012
As we drive dangerously close to the precipice of 2011 and pause to look back on a year that has been, are any of these situations familiar?
1. Plenty of projects on the go but not many seeing the light of the true benefits envisaged at the beginning of the project
2. Plenty of projects around with priority 1 assigned but inadequate resources to get accomplished
Why the Quality Listening program Should Not be a Performance Review
– Colin Taylor (Taylor Reach Group)
A quick and meaningful read that will get you thinking about the target of quality assurance and what we need to achieve when running a listening program.
Leadership Cycle: Pressure – Planning – Prevention – Darlene Richard
Once again, Darlene’s expertise comes to the fore as she takes customer service leaders through the leadership cycle.
Customer Service in the UK – Recession & Christmas: What a Time to be in Customer Service!
– Don Hales, Founder of Customer Service Training Network, National Customer Service Awards & Presenter and Author on Customer Service Issues
Wish to provide feedback or comment? We welcome comments on Don’s article and all other information presented in the Download. Place feedback…
All the best from the Team @
Snapshotz Online October 2011
A Snapshotz of October:
The Snapshotz Download has a slightly changed format for October where we have another eminent contributor instead of the ‘industry voices’. Packed again with valuable information that you can employ immediately, Octobers Download is a must read with contributions from Colin Taylor, Darlene Richard Don Hales and Deepak Selvaratnam
A note to those of you who wish to have Snapshotz Download delivered to another email address other than the one you currently receive this monthly ‘download’ please click here to include another address
There is plenty a brewing in the months to come … See the Emerging Trends workshop
Sales is Good Service whether you offer a Product or Service, or be a Private or Public Organization
Why service is the same as selling and all organizations should be “Selzig” or sales oriented! Read more…
Positive Health & Safety in Your Customer Support Centre – Minimizing the Ten Most Common Environmental Stressors, Part 2
In the sequel to last months article Darlene Richard the international author & philosopher on non face-to-face customer support and loyalty points us further in the direction of reducing environmental stressors to gain higher levels of productivity and a more ‘balanced workforce’ Read more…
Just in case you missed Darlene’s previous article here it is again. Minimising the ten most common environmental stressors Part 01.
Customer Service in the UK – the best in the world?
Read this tongue in cheek article from Don Hales, founder of the ‘Customer Service Network’ and the ‘National Customer Service Awards UK’ Read UK Customer Service is Best!
Wish to provide feedback or comment? We welcome comments on Don’s article and all other information presented in the Download. Place feedback…
EMERGING TRENDS WORKSHOP FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE
In the lead up to the first quarter of 2012, Darlene Richard will facilitate a breakfast series driven from Snapshotz assessments. Topics include the top 12 issues facing organizations with regard to customer service today. These, sometimes well-hidden business constraints and drivers are gleaned from a seven-year study conducted by Snapshotz with over 400 organizations around the world.
Darlene Richard, international subject matter expert and philosopher on non face-to-face customer support is an internationally acclaimed facilitator. She combines her 25 years working with over 50 organizations in a dozen countries to lead workshop.
The cost covers breakfast and your handout filled with valuable insights and action plans you can use to affect change in your organization within the week after the workshop. These insights can save you, not just headaches and time, but increase revenue / Service levels and help you moderate costs in innovative ways.
The program appeals to different levels of management whether you are a senior customer service manager / leader or a team leader. The workshop is also relevant to customer engagement and marketing and operational mangers as well.
With programs scheduled for New Zealand – Auckland, Wellington, Australia – Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, Canada and USA, contact us to find out dates and book remaining places as these workshops have been presold. Emerging Trends Workshops – Please send me information
All the best from the Team
—————————————————————————————
Monthly Download
The Snapshotz Online Download April 2012
What’s on the menu of the April issue of ‘Download’
• Snapshotz: “Enabling a thousand flowers to bloom”
• Millennial myths busted – learning’s for contact center management
• “There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.” 7 more Leadership Secrets of Henry Ford
• The Language of Leadership, Influence Culture, and Influence Strategy – Words can be weapons of mass destruction or weapons of mass inspiration. Chose them with extreme care!
• Event information
Our readership and ‘pass on’s’ continues to grow with over 500 new readers last month thanks to readers who found the download useful and passed on to friends and colleagues.
Please let us know if you wish to have this newsletter sent to another email address or be sent to someone else whom you think will benefit from this mail.
Send to another email address or Please forward
Wishes for a successful Month of May 2012.
All the best from the Team @
WWW.CustomerServicesAudit.com
________________________________________
Snapshotz: “Enabling a thousand flowers to bloom”
Whilst a third of the year has zoomed past, for many including ourselves it seems like we are only just gathering momentum. There are over 50 plus Snapshotz users who are currently working through the Snapshotz assessment or have just completed them over the past week.
With South Africa and the Middle East beginning to lead the charge, other locations of Snapshotz Customers include the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Snapshotz is a unique and multifaceted tool and one of the key facets is benchmarking provided by the 700 plus data points collected by the Snapshotz tool in the assessment process.
A striking feature of a majority of those completing the Snapshotz assessment for the second time around is the degree of innovation that is beginning to breed. Whilst in some cases there are dramatic changes wrought about by introduction of new technology for many it is the ability to make small but innovative changes to vastly improve the operations of the centre, staff engagement and customer engagement. This has only been possible through the ability of the Snapshotz tool that assists in identifying these and providing the structure to do so and in the words of Masaaki Imai Kaizen, enabling a ‘thousand flowers to bloom’ or change for the better!
May a thousand flowers bloom in your center! Click here if you would like to have a thousand flowers bloom in your center or have a specific query
________________________________________
Millennial myths busted – learning’s for contact center management
Colin Taylor
I read an interesting article by Jennifer J Deal at strategy+business looking at three myths we hold about Millennials (Those employees born between 1980 – 2000). For the past number of years we have all heard horror stories about organizations that gave away iPads, spot bonuses, socially conscious and social responsible activities, but still had staff leave for greener pastures. Read more
________________________________________
7 More Leadership Secrets of Henry Ford
Darlene Richard
“There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.” 7 more Leadership Secrets of Henry Ford
Written for Snapshotz Online Download, journey once more with Darlene as she guides us to apply these principles to life and in our contact center environments. 7 more…
Missed her last article? 7 Leadership…
________________________________________
The Language of Leadership, Influence Culture, Influence
Audrey Watts
The power of words, read this article from an experienced industry stalwart…
Words can be weapons of mass destruction or weapons of mass inspiration. Chose them with extreme care! Click to read…
________________________________________
Events … Snapshotz Online – CCiNZ Monthly Bites April 2012
In thoroughly educative, entertaining and interactive sessions, we traversed a range of topics (and some distances) that are crucial to operations within a contact center. Here is a sample of feed back from the events:
“Fabulous contact centre, great networking opportunity, great format”
“Its interactive, great hearing other peoples work stories”
“relaxed and informal, great mix and learnings”
“I really appreciate the effort by CCiNZ and Snapshotz to help us understand similar solutions to major issues we face”
“Great presentation from Peter and the team, great hosts”
“Learnt so much from Lyn and her team, it was a really worthwhile journey!”
See Photo’s from the Genesis Energy and Lantern Insurance site visits April 26th & 27th 2012
As evident lots of benefits… so if you wish to be a part of this journey contact us.
Watch out for news of the June event coming to you shortly!
Do wish to know where you stand against key benchmarks from organisations across the industry you are in? Request a free comparison guide for your center – Please send me the comparator report.
________________________________________
Developed in NZ but gaining ground around the world, Snapshotz is the cheapest tool to keep track of the entirety of the customer experience. Check out the website http://customerservicesaudit.com/ See sample reports generated as well as other links such as customers experiences Customer Experiences
Snapshotz Online has multiple applications – audit, planning, training, comparison of teams and performance, review and reporting.
If you wish to find out more contact us or our certified partners and we will be happy to discuss any questions you may have. Contact information: Email: Info@customerservicesaudit.com
Customer Services Audit Ltd, TeleConsultants House, 31 MacKelvie Street, Grey Lynn,
Auckland1144, New Zealand. Phone: 0064 9 376 2806 .